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enlightened man who was exposed to modern ideas during his ambassadorial post in Ottoman’s
court of Istanbul. Prior to assumption of his ministerial position, Husayn Khan had spent 12 years
in Istanbul. At that time the cosmopolitan Istanbul was one of the most significant centers of
cultural and political criticism and a place for dissemination and debate of the Western ideas. The
ideal of the French Revolution and the ideas of the philosophy of the Enlightenment were
influential within Istanbul intellectual circles. In addition, Husayn Khan was closely familiar with
the Ottoman policies of legal and administrative reform called Tanzimat. For all these reasons
Husayn Khan had become a serious advocate of reform who continuously encouraged Nasiri’d-
Din Shah to initiate reform policies. During the 1860s Russia’s activities in Central Asia increased
and it continued to annex additional parts of the region to its territory. Furthermore, Iran’s economy
continued to decline. The commercial significance of the Persian Gulf declined and
deindustrialization increased. In this situation, Qajar princes levied additional taxes on land and
caused increasing poverty among the population. During his 1869 trip to Shi’ih holy places in Iraq,
the Shah could observe the widespread poverty of different regions of Iran.
All these factors encouraged the Shah to appoint Husayn Khan to ministerial political positions to
enable him to initiate reform policies. In 1872 Nasiri’d-Din Shah named Husayn Khan as his prime
minister. But Husayn Khan’s concessions to British investors became a pretext to mobilize
effective opposition against him by the joint forces of conservative ‘ulama and Qajar princes.
Therefore in 1873 Shah asked for his resignation. However, Husayn Khan was appointed as the
minister of defense, and he continued to implement his reforms throughout the decade. Finally, he
was relieved of all political posts in 1880, and died in the next year. The policy of reform was
effectively terminated and Shah returned to his dictatorial and patrimonial policies.
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During his various ministerial posts, Husayn Khan tried to carry out varieties of social and political
reforms. They can be divided into judicial, military, political, economic, and cultural reforms. In
judicial affairs, he tried to limit the arbitrary judicial power of the local landlords, governors, and
‘ulama over their subjects. The governors were normally Qajar princes who, together with ‘ulama,
had unlimited legal and judicial power over the people. The arbitrary prosecution, sentencing, and
punishment of the peasants by their landlords were some of the most common sources of
oppression and social injustice. This included the execution of their subjects. Husayn Khan tried
to confine the judicial power to the ministry of justice and the official representatives of the
ministry. He also made any capital punishment dependent on the approval of the headquarter of
the justice ministry. In military institutions, he tried to make the military authority more impersonal
and bureaucratic. Fighting corruption and financial abuse was one of his primary concerns. For
that reason, he emphasized creation of better accounting system and statistics. He also tried to
make the military more efficient by production of weapons and implementation of a new code of
rules concerning military service. He attempted to decrease the arbitrary power of the higher
officers, normally Qajar princes, over the soldiers, and created some military colleges.
In political affairs Husayn Khan emphasized political centralization at the expense of the arbitrary
power of the Qajar governors and ‘ulama. He created a cabinet system which consisted of nine
ministers and a prime minister. The functions and authority of each minister was defined more
clearly and the prime minister became the mediation between the king and the ministers. This also
implied decreasing authority of the Shah and increasing power of the prime minister. Husayn Khan
tried to limit the salaries of the governors and ministers through adoption of formal rules and fight
against corruption in political positions.